At Bethany, we have three competitive Houses: Kiplings, Roberts and Speakers. Each pupil belongs to one of these three houses who battle it out for points throughout the year in various events, and the winner takes home the coveted Jessel Shield.

This week we delve deeper into 2022/23 Jessel Shield winners, Kiplings House, as Head of House, Mrs Clough, explains all.

Kiplings House was named after Rudyard Kipling author of The Jungle Book, who resided at Batemans, which is now a national trust house with beautiful grounds and a wonderful house filled with Kiplings work. Looking through the archives at school I stumbled across the following letter written by R Kipling:It is an honour to be Head of a House which was named after such an influential and creative individual. The name suits our house perfectly as it is full of diverse, creative and talented pupils who have already proven they are successful individuals as well as working together as a team.

I have now been Head of the Kiplings House for 3 years and I could not be prouder of them. We are riding high from the victory of winning the Jessel Shield last year. The House has got off to a flying start this year already and we have a very positive attitude towards the year ahead. We had some strong competition last year and only won by a mere 0.5 point so we have it all to play for this year to ensure we keep the winning streak going.

We have a strong set of Heads of House this year who have already played a key role in rallying and encouraging the house to take part in events already. The Heads of House consist of Noah Lydon-Stanford, Edith Lowe, Shea Power, Anna Elion and Millie James.  These pupils have proven themselves as excellent role models, encouraging the younger years to feel like part of a the Kiplings community.

The Heads of House played a inspirational role on Sports Day which was the first of the big events in the KRS calendar. Millie and Anna led by example, taking part in the 600m race for their age group along with other races to ensure the House were winning points for entering the race as well as the potential extra points for placing in the race. Shea, who came face painted and ready to rally the troops, did a fantastic job of organising the runners and ensuring the Kiplings pupils were bibbed up and ready to race.

The Kiplings pupils did a fantastic job of encouraging each other and filling gaps for races that we needed an extra team member to take part in. The act of teamwork was really strong and the pupils made me very proud as a Head of House.

Pupils that were perhaps not as confident in racing were able to do their part by taking part in the side events including, frisbee throwing, welly wanging, and the penalty shoot out where points were awarded. Kiplings dominated these events which helped add to the overall points total for the day. Every little helped and every member of the House played their part wonderfully.

The last race was run and the scores were counted only to find that there was a tie between two houses, Roberts and Kiplings. It all came down to one race, the fastest member from each house. Our Year 13 pupil Femi confidently stepped up and did us proud by keeping his cool and pipping James Candeloro on the finish line of the 100m sprit. What a way to finish Sports Day, the rain kept at bay and a rainbow came out as the final race was run and the winners announced as Kiplings House!

There are many more events taking place throughout the year. We have Tug of War, art competitions, pumpkin carving, as well as House Shout, but to name a few to look forward to next half term.

Kilpings House have definitely started the year off with a bang and are currently 5 points ahead at this stage, but we have to keep pushing to make sure we are consistent and maintain that lead. Lets hope we can continue our positive start and be consistent as the year progresses. The next big whole house event will be the House Shout and so our Heads of House will need to start to plan our song choice and choreography for this event to ensure we come out on top.

– Mrs Clough
Head of Kiplings House